Big Ten Football Announces Plan to Begin Play at End of October

The Big Ten Conference has announced that football will start to play in October and complete its schedule by the College Football Playoff selection show.

ESPN reports that the conference will officially begin to play the weekend of October 24. Eight games will be played over eight weeks for every team in the conference, and conclude with the Big Ten Championship game on December 19. The eight-week crash course would allow the conference to complete play before the College Football Playoff selection show on December 20.

Back in August, the Big Ten decided to postpone the college football season with the intention of playing a schedule in the spring. Following the decision of the ACC, Big 12, and SEC continue to play this fall, the Big Ten started discussing the possibility of still playing in the fall with a potential start time around Thanksgiving. Now those discussions have led to a start in October.

The conference will implement daily testing for COVID-19 and each Big Ten team will have a "Chief Infection Officer" to oversee everything COVID-19 related. The conference also says that any player that tests positive for COVID-19 will be out 21 days and the player must be cleared by a cardiologist before they can return.

As of now, the conference has not released a modified season schedule for the new restart. More information about that should be coming in the next few days.